Gaaniph_.
This sepulchre is cut in black

[Picture: Fig. 2]

basaltic rock, and has some broken sarcophagi remaining inside. On a
round fragment of a column, near this side, is the inscription given
below, (fig. 4.) The upper part is the farewell of surviving relatives

[Picture: Fig. 3]

to the daughter of SEMLACHUS. The lower part, for whomsoever
intended,--"_and thou also farewell_,"--carries with it a touch of nature
that still affects the heart, after the lapse of many centuries.

[Picture: Fig. 4]

The mausoleums and sepulchres at the opposite end of the city were even
more numerous, many having Greek inscriptions upon them.

But the theatre is the most remarkable of all the objects of
antiquity,--so perfect, with its rows of seats complete, surrounded by
numerous public edifices and lines of columns; and then commanding from
those seats a large view of the beautiful Lake of Tiberias, and of the
grand mountains which enclose it, as a frame to the picture.

Here I stayed behind the rest of the party for a considerable time,
charmed with the spectacle of nature, and revolving over the incidents of
Herodian history, so vividly portrayed by Josephus.

Then rejoined my friends, by galloping along a Roman road, paved with
blocks of dark basalt.

But before leaving this place, I must express my surprise at any person
that has been there imagining for a moment that it can be the Gadara of
Scripture.

The distance from the lake is so great as to be utterly incompatible with
the recorded transactions in the Gospels--having valleys and high hills
intervening; and even supposing the miracle of relieving the demoniac to
refer not to the city but to a territory named Gadara, it is
inconceivable that the territory belonging to this city (Umm Kais) could
extend beyond the deep natural crevasse of the river _Yarmuk_, and then
rise up a high mountain, to descend again into a plain, all before
reaching the lake.

Our descent to the Yarmuk was long and steep; and upon the plain which it
intersects, the heat exceeded any that I had ever encountered anywhere.
The air was like fire. Such a day I shall never forget.

The Yarmuk is so considerable a river that the Arabs call it _Sheree'a_,
as they do the Jordan--only qualifying the latter as the larger one. It
is called the _Sheree'a el Menadherah_, from a party of Bedaween
occupying it